US returns $15 million Picasso painting to France after 14-year disappearance

The Pablo Picasso painting, "La Coiffeusse," or "The Hairdresser," is seen during a repatriation ceremony at the French Embassy in Washington, DC, on Aug. 13, 2015. Photo by Saul Loeb for Agence France-Presse.

The United States on Thursday returned to French authorities an oil painting by Pablo Picasso that was reported stolen from a major Paris museum 14 years ago.

“The Hairdresser,” which Picasso created in Paris in 1911 during his Cubism period, was seized by US customs agents in New Jersey.

Valued at $15 million, it was authenticated in January by experts from the Centre Georges Pompidou museum, its previous home.

“Picasso used to say: ‘A painting truly exists in the eyes of the beholder’,” said Frederic Dore, deputy chief of mission at the French embassy in Washington, where the painting was formally handed over.

Once back in the French capital, the diplomat said, it will “come back to life” and return to public view after careful restoration “thanks to this outstanding Franco-American customs cooperation.”

The painting had been listed on Interpol’s database of stolen works of art since it was reported stolen from the Centre Pompidou’s archives in 2001.

It had last been publicly displayed in Munich, Germany in 1998 — and no one is clear on where it has been since.

US customs agents came across it during a targeted inspection in Newark, New Jersey, just outside New York, in December 2014.

Wrapped as a Christmas parcel sent from Belgium, it bore a shipping label that claimed it was a mere $30 handicraft, the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency said.

No arrests have been made.

“It’s truly priceless (and) so meaningful — not just to your country, but to the world,” said ICE director Sarah Saldana at the handover ceremony.

“We are committed to extracting stolen cultural property from the grasp of the black market and restoring it to its rightful owners,” added Kelly Currie, the US federal prosecutor for the eastern district of New York, in a statement.